The present invention relates to a method of producing dough, and more particularly, the present invention is concerned with producing dough which can be proofed, frozen, stored for periods of time in frozen condition and thereafter subjected to baking without the traditional thawing or proofing procedure.
Freezing of baking doughs for distribution has widely come into effect in the U.S. and other countries and has become more and more important with expansion of freezing-distribution mechanisms. The breadmaking process using frozen dough, however, has several serious problems to be solved. Among them are the length of time in preparation before baking and the reduction in stability of the dough after freezing and thawing. Heretofore, it was believed that the reduction in the stability of the dough was due to the reduction in yeast activity and the associated degradation of the dough which are in turn considered to be caused by leakage of reducing substances (predominantly glutathione) from damaged yeast cells. Various attempts have been made in practice to solve the problem, (for example, the use of a larger amount of yeast or the use of a slightly larger quantity of potassium bromate), but all of them are unsatisfactory.
Among various kinds of breads, those of lean formulae, such as white bread, are generally susceptible to significant degradation and thus few of them are actually circulated as frozen doughs. The prolonged frozen storage of lean formula frozen dough gives rise to a reduction in the volume of the baked bread and a deterioration in the quality thereof (coarse skin, crumb, etc.) so that the bread has a quality which is not acceptable for a commercial product.
From these viewpoints, various techniques, including a decrease in fermentation time before freezing, an increase in quantity of yeast used and the addition of KBrO.sub.3, have been proposed, but none of them are, in effect, satisfactory.